St. Louis metropolitan area ranks as the No. 6 "asthma capital" in the United States

St. Louis Business Journal - February 16, 2005

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The St. Louis metropolitan area ranks as the No. 6 "asthma capital" in the United States, according to an annual study released Wednesday by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

The study measured 12 factors, including prevalence factors, risk factors and medical factors, and weighted data based on the relative effect on the quality of life for asthma sufferers.

St. Louis, which was the sixth most challenging place for asthma sufferers to live, had worse than average scores for estimated prevalence, reported prevalence, crude death rate from asthma, annual air quality and public smoking laws. The metro area had average scores from annual pollen level, poverty rate, uninsured rate, rescue meds per patients, controller meds per patient and the number of asthma specialists per patient, and above-average scores for school inhaler access laws.